A Democratic district leader claims the city’s new congestion pricing plan effectively ended her six-year romance. Mariama James, a former state Assembly candidate, told The New York Post that the tolls made it impossible for her boyfriend, an MTA bus driver, to afford the trips needed to visit her.
The couple dated from 2019 until 2025, but the financial strain of the new tax became too much. James went viral on X this week after posting about how the policy drove a wedge between them, turning a once-romantic dynamic into a financial hardship they could not overcome.
A Relationship Derailed by Tolls
James described a traditional courtship where her boyfriend, whose real name she withheld, refused to let her pay for anything. He would park his bus to take her to dinner during his breaks, and she never had to open a door or carry a bag. “He is the man,” James, 55, told The Post, noting she “didn’t carry a bag. I didn’t pay a tab. I didn’t open the door. I didn’t walk on the outside of the street.”
On Jan. 5, 2025, congestion pricing officially began, requiring a $9 fee for drivers entering the zone, which marked the turning point. The boyfriend already paid bridge tolls to travel from East New York to his depot in Harlem, and the new toll made frequent visits to James’s home in the Financial District unsustainable. “We basically stopped seeing each other bc of Congestion Pricing,” James wrote this week.
James explained that her partner could not let her pay the toll instead, as he insisted on being the gentleman who covered all costs. Since he would not permit her to drive to Brooklyn or take the train to meet him, the couple largely stayed at her place. By 2025, the financial reality of the tolls forced them to stop meeting on his breaks.
The Political Fallout
This personal tragedy highlights a broader political battle brewing in New York. James is not just a victim of the policy; she is a Democrat criticizing fellow Democrats for the move. She argues that Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani are out of touch with working families who are getting squeezed by these taxes.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman seized on this sentiment ahead of the November 3 election. He signed a “no new taxes” pledge on Friday, daring Hochul to do the same. “Kathy Hochul has never met a tax she didn’t like, and Zohran Mamdani has never met one he didn’t want to raise,” Blakeman said in a statement.
Blakeman added, “I signed this pledge to draw a hard line against tax hikes,” while challenging Hochul to admit that her re-election would bring more levies. He vowed to veto any income tax hikes and block new Mamdani-inspired taxes if he wins. The pledge includes five points, such as no hidden property tax increases and restoring New York’s competitiveness.
A State Burdened by Debt
The financial pressure on families like James’s is part of a larger crisis. A new Reason Foundation report found that every New Yorker owes $37,000 in combined government debt, the highest per-capita load in the nation. The report, titled “State and Local Government Finances in America,” notes that the state’s total debt exceeds $744 billion.
New York City is currently tied with Chicago as America’s most fiscally stressed city government. Economists utilize eight warning signs to gauge long-term financial health, and the city triggers seven of them, according to reports. Even if the city sold every building and piece of infrastructure it owns, it could only repay a fraction of its $315.9 billion in total liabilities.
As voters head to the polls, the question of who can stop the bleeding is central. Blakeman contends that New York leaders have been utilizing a credit card for spending that no one attempts to repay. With 34% of likely voters citing taxes and jobs as their top concerns, the cost of congestion pricing may be just the first bill that comes due.
This is opinion and commentary from the RapForMayor team.
